Extra Services

Junior high school bullies blamed in teen’s murder

Date Posted: 2009-11-25

Five young teens are under arrest and another three in custody in connection with the beating death of a14-year-old junior high school student in Uruma City last week.

Hoshito Yonemori, a second-year junior high school student, died last Tuesday night after being beaten. One of the assailants called for an ambulance after the beating, telling authorities the boy had fallen off the roof of a lodge. The autopsy ruled that bruises showed 14-year-old Yonemori had been beaten.

Five 14-year-old second-year junior high students have been arrested on suspicion of conducting the gang attack on Yonemori. The other three, who are 13 years of age, are being held. Authorities say the minimum age for which legal criminal charges can be brought is 14.

Police say Yonemori had been known to hang out earlier in the school year with the eight boys now in custody, but had stopped associating with them some years ago. The assailants have told police the victim had “a brash attitude”, leading authorities to believe that could be the motive for the gang attack. School authorities say they’d been contacted in past months with inquiries about their son’s relationships with some of the boys now in custody.